The Catholic Church has a limitation as to prescriptive rights, to-wit: “Three years in case of movable property; ten years in case of a right, or of immovable property, inter praesentes; twenty years in the same case, inter absentes.”[369] Also, there are limitations in canonical cases, varying from one [pg 119] to twenty years.[370] There is no statute of limitation on lawful debts.
207. Procedure, Judge, Juror, Witness.—If there are no rules of procedure prescribed by the church tribunal, the proper practice is to follow the State courts; as, for example, where the State law forbids an officer of the court who has an interest in the proceeding to sit as judge or juror, the same would apply to the church tribunal, it being the common law of the land. Also, in States where a person who is interested in a matter is not a competent witness, in the absence of a different rule in the church, the same rule would apply in the church tribunal.[371]
208. Catholic Discipline.—A church member has no right to sue any one in holy orders in the civil court without leave. That is, a layman or priest should obtain leave of the bishop to sue a priest. In some countries it is ground for excommunication to violate the rule. This rule is analogous to the general rule that a sovereign state can not be sued without its consent.[372] In this country, where there is no ecclesiastical court recognized in law, leave is rarely asked.[373]
Chapter XVII. State Courts
209. Decision, Ecclesiastical Matter.—The decision of the highest tribunal of the church on a purely ecclesiastical matter will not be disturbed by civil courts unless it is in open defiance and express violation of the constitution of such body.[374]
210. Right of Property, Civil Rights.—Where there are several church tribunals one above another, when the highest tribunal having jurisdiction of the case has decided a question as to the right of property, a civil court will accept such decision of the church tribunal as conclusive.[375] The courts give way to the usages and regulations of the church so far as they are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the State.[376] As far as civil rights are concerned, the [pg 121] statute of limitations may be pleaded even where those rights are founded upon some law or rule of the denomination.[377]
211. Creed, Factions, Property, Management.—The supreme court exercises no ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but accepts what the highest ecclesiastical authority in each church promulgates as the faith and practice of that church, and will not determine for itself what that faith or creed is in order to establish the rights of respective factions in the church to the church property. But a majority of a congregation that secedes from the church and forms a new organization can not claim any of the property.[378] The civil courts will not interfere with church management so far as concerns the spiritual discipline of the members, but where civil rights of property are involved, the courts may determine them.[379] The civil rights of a religious society or its members are within the jurisdiction of the State courts.[380]
212. Trust, Court of Equity.—A conveyance in trust for the use of a church vests the use in the church and it will be protected by a court of equity.[381]